Countdown Pointing To Bungie’s ‘Destiny’ MMO Reveal? [Updated]

Bungie may have left the Halo franchise behind in the hands of 343 Industries, but they definitely didn’t leave their sense of theatrics behind with the franchise that made them a household name. A mysterious site has just come up with a domain name that will look very familiar to anyone who’s been following news regarding Bungie’s rumored MMO Destiny.

The timing itself is just too perfect. It’s almost as though Bungie has been following the recent coverage of Destiny which linked a company named Podophobia Entertainment, Inc. with Bungie’s President Harold Ryan. It was revealed that Podophobia had registered a trademark for a game called Destiny.

The trademark included a logo which had been recently spotted on the shirt of a Bungie employee at a ping pong match with Penny Arcade.

The mysterious website itself is podophobiaentertainment.com, currently home to a timer with (as of this writing) 116 days and change to go. If this site went up yesterday, then that would mean the timer started counting down from 117 days. Rather fitting for Bungie, since Spartan 117 a.k.a. Master Chief helped make them as famous as they are today. The timer is set to end at 12:00AM EST on September 17, 2011.

The date itself doesn’t seem significant, so this may point to a potential reveal date for Destiny. The timer isn’t all the page has to offer either. Under the timer a message keeps flashing with 3 different phases:

“Incoming Transmission…

Receiving Distress Signal…

Please Wait…”

And wait we will.

What the distress signal is about only Bungie knows at this point, but this flashing message could be a way to reveal bits and pieces of the story before the countdown hits zero. It could potentially play host to an exchange between the ones sending out the distress signal and the location currently receiving the signal.

An anonymous source revealed recently that four other trademarks registered by Bungie earlier this year are likely four different factions in Bungie’s next game. With Bungie having hinted at their next experience taking place in a persistent world, lots of speculation has pointed at Bungie’s next game being an MMO.

What do you think the countdown timer is counting down to? Let us know your own thoughts and theories in the comments.

[Update: Bungie claims this is a fake website and that they only thing they’re counting down to is Bungie Day.]